High-level analysis: gender parity is improving while non-binary writers are still a significantly small proportion of the total; the total percentage of writers of color dropped 3% but is still better than it was in 2015, the first year of this analysis.

I’d also like to note that I’m using Tableau for the analysis this year–you can highlight aspects of the data right on this page or you can download the workbook–with its data–directly. I’m just starting to learn Tableau, so I am sure there are many interesting things that can be done with the tool than what I’ve done. (I also wanted to keep the metrics stable from year to year; at some point I’d love to add in regional data to see what non-U.S. representation is like.)

One other difference from previous years is that I dropped the analysis around repeat appearances on the list. About a third of the POC writers represented had their first appearance in this dataset; however one of this year’s newbies is Chip Delany, so make of that what you will.

Current obsession: data visualization. I have a 700 page book about Tableau here on my desk and I’ve read three books on the subject, have subscribed to the RSS feeds of a bunch of dataviz blogs and am now thinking about how I can get book-related data that’s a little bit more interesting that the perennial lists of Hugo and Nebula nominees and winners. If anyone knows of any publicly available data about SFF or romance, do let me know.

This week’s links are pretty intense, so please take care when clicking through.

It took me an unconscionably long time to get to Kat Howard’s latest novel An Unkindness of Magicians. I loved her first book, Roses and Rot—it reminded me of Charles de Lint in the very best sort of way—and thus, this was a day of release purchase for me. Why I didn’t get to it for months is beyond me.

At any rate—this was the book I read the week I was traveling last month—first on a work trip and then to ConFusion. In fact, I finished reading this in the lobby during the convention because I couldn’t put it down.

On its surface, An Unkindness of Magicians is about a magical competition—a Turning—among magic families in New York City. But dig a little deeper and this is a beautifully constructed exploration of power, privilege, and the too often unseen price paid for both.

I’ve been thinking a lot about both pace and curation over the past few months and have decided that I need to slow down so I can keep making these posts every week. I’m more interested in having a tighter focus around what I choose to share at this point. I’m also becoming interested in revisiting older links from the archives and doing deeper dives into some of the themes I visit and revisit each week.